Elephant Knight wrote:Uuuummmmmmm, I am confused. What are the teams supposed to do?

EKnight

It's for fun I believe.

Each team seems to represent the court or knights of a given Administrator, and this is meant to inspire cooperation and motivate each individual to do their best for that team.

The assignment of participants to this 'psuedo-competition' will be random... I think the benefit is perhaps that individuals on the same team could let their guard down and help one another with advice before publishing their MOCs... I don't know, but that seems like a benefit, so long as the discussions are private and submission rules are followed.

Elephant Knight wrote:Uuuummmmmmm, I am confused. What are the teams supposed to do?

EKnight

Well, assuming I fully understand this, each team is responsible with absolutely nothing. However, being a memer of a team means that the person is much more likely to enter, and more likely to enter more, so that he/she, and his/her team, have a greater chance of winning, which will bestow upon him/her a special forum title, and full bragging rights. Make sense? Basically, it's to add a bit of fun and enjoyment to this contest (not that it wasn't already fun) and to encourage more entries. And let me say, I totally love this idea and will be waiting with baited breath on Wednesday.

Although I cant think of any way a group of people in a competition with only one winner per catagory can work together.

either way I will be signing up on the 5th

Honestly, does that really matter?

The winning Admin (and team) is determined by who has the most winners & honourable mentions so there's plenty of room for discussion. The building level around here has climbed to a point where victory could go to anyone. If you're entering a contest, aiming for an honourable mention is probably a better goal than aiming for the win. Even that is a pretty lofty goal in today's building climate.

Having said that; I'm kind of wondering if there is going to be a points system (i.e., is a victory worth more than an honourable mention. Is 1st worth more than 2nd; is 2nd worth more than 3rd?). We would-be competitors need to know these things.

I'm very interested in seeing how this all plays out. In the end; even with only 30 particpants I suspect that there will be more than a few "Junior Gong Farmers" as every year there are members who promise big things but fail to deliver due to time or personal circumstances. Personally, I intend to enter if only to motivate me to work harder.

One thing teams could do is discuss which categories they are entering. If one team has zero or few entries in specific categories, some team members may take the extra initiative to fill those gaps. Or perhaps members undecided on which categories to enter can use team information to choose one that will be most beneficial.

SavaTheAggie wrote:Master Builders, who know what the judges are looking for and have proven their skills as superior, would unfairly weight one team over another. I mean no disrespect to anyone in making this analogy, but you wouldn't want an MLB star on the roster of a little league team.

--Tony

Was this criteria removed?

The original competition rules prohibited Master Builders from entering; is that rule still in effect? The current post doesn't seem to mention it one way or the other. I also feel that the MLB star/little league comparison is a bit over-the-top. I seem to recall that past competitions were pretty close. Moreover, Master Builders (and the runner-ups) have proven themselves to be consistent and dedicated builders; something every good copetition needs.

Elephant Knight and Lord Azreal raised the question above about what teams would do and how they could cooperate in an individual competition. I think the model to examine is last year's friendly competition between the Polish and Portuguese communities as described in this thread by Hippotam and Tânia. I think we could all agree that they really helped raise the bar last year. That does raise the question for me - do we know if these groups are doing something similar this year? Have they been joined by any other groups?

Bruce N H wrote:Elephant Knight and Lord Azreal raised the question above about what teams would do and how they could cooperate in an individual competition. I think the model to examine is last year's friendly competition between the Polish and Portuguese communities as described in this thread by Hippotam and Tânia. I think we could all agree that they really helped raise the bar last year.

I agree, it's awesome that something is organized for this now, but I am a bit uncertain about something.
The way I see it, if a team has only one person that didn't enter any entries, the whole team will become Junior Gong Farmers? What if someone was to sign up for a team and then totally disappear from the forums, should the other competitors that have tried their best and entered some great entries be "punished" for that?
I agree that would make things more interesting, but if someone who signed up really is prevented from entering for some unfortunate reason, the rest of the team would get pretty upset with this member, is that really the kind of reaction/atmosphere we would want?
Don't get me wrong, I think this is a cool idea and will do my best to be there on time to sign up, so I can get into a team. Now if only we knew what time exactly to be there on Wednesday...

Between plotting to kill you all and chasing balls of yarn, I also build MOCs

SavaTheAggie wrote:Master Builders, who know what the judges are looking for and have proven their skills as superior, would unfairly weight one team over another. I mean no disrespect to anyone in making this analogy, but you wouldn't want an MLB star on the roster of a little league team.

--Tony

Was this criteria removed?

The original competition rules prohibited Master Builders from entering; is that rule still in effect? The current post doesn't seem to mention it one way or the other. I also feel that the MLB star/little league comparison is a bit over-the-top. I seem to recall that past competitions were pretty close. Moreover, Master Builders (and the runner-ups) have proven themselves to be consistent and dedicated builders; something every good copetition needs.

Yes, in my zealousness to remove the other entry criteria, I deleted the whole paragraph which included the restriction against Master Builders. And yes, Master Builders are prevented from taking part. (There's also an unofficial, unwritten tradition that Master Builders don't enter the contest directly after which they won the title).

Aliencat wrote:I agree, it's awesome that something is organized for this now, but I am a bit uncertain about something.The way I see it, if a team has only one person that didn't enter any entries, the whole team will become Junior Gong Farmers? What if someone was to sign up for a team and then totally disappear from the forums, should the other competitors that have tried their best and entered some great entries be "punished" for that?I agree that would make things more interesting, but if someone who signed up really is prevented from entering for some unfortunate reason, the rest of the team would get pretty upset with this member, is that really the kind of reaction/atmosphere we would want?Don't get me wrong, I think this is a cool idea and will do my best to be there on time to sign up, so I can get into a team. Now if only we knew what time exactly to be there on Wednesday...

This was most of the entire reason to limit entry to those who have 100 posts and/or one year of membership to Classic-Castle. However, this restriction was removed because of the question of "Fairness" to the people new to the forum. Thank your fellow forum members for that.

In the event that unforeseen circumstances prevent a team member from entering, such as family illness, major life changes (fired from work), that team will be exempt from the "Junior Gong Farmer" rule for that individual. Things like "school got in the way" or "my girlfriend dumped me" are not valid excuses.

--Tony

Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day.Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

Alright, that's clear.
One more question, because this team thing is all new I'm full of questions. Curiosity killed the cat and all that

Is the reason you didn't mention a time on wednesday simply because you don't know yet, or is this because you don't want people to know beforehand what time the sign-ups begin, for the reason of actually "rewarding" people who hang out in chat and be social with other people with the ability to sign up, instead of 30 people loggin in at 5 pm (for example) to all sign up at the same time?

SavaTheAggie wrote:This was most of the entire reason to limit entry to those who have 100 posts and/or one year of membership to Classic-Castle. However, this restriction was removed because of the question of "Fairness" to the people new to the forum. Thank your fellow forum members for that.

Thanks, fellow forum members!

Between plotting to kill you all and chasing balls of yarn, I also build MOCs

Aliencat wrote:Is the reason you didn't mention a time on wednesday simply because you don't know yet, or is this because you don't want people to know beforehand what time the sign-ups begin, for the reason of actually "rewarding" people who hang out in chat and be social with other people with the ability to sign up, instead of 30 people loggin in at 5 pm (for example) to all sign up at the same time?

That would be an incredibly good and valid (to me) reason and would make me look like the absolute genius that I am.

However, I am a lazy genius, and I did not specify a time (outside of "in the afternoon") because I just can't say that I'll be at a computer at time X or if I'll even remember to post at that time. I wouldn't want to bring my genius nature into question if I were to forget to post and have to be reminded to do so.

--Tony

Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day.Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

rogue27 wrote:Anyway, would it be possible to create a private forum for each team? Based on my experience with other online team-based contests, I've found that a team discussion forum greatly increases participation and motivation.

It has been decided that rooms in the chat room will be made available for the teams. This is a much faster method that will not require any dinking with the forum. Team members, of course, are not required to make use of said rooms.

--Tony

Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day.Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

SavaTheAggie wrote:It has been decided that rooms in the chat room will be made available for the teams. This is a much faster method that will not require any dinking with the forum. Team members, of course, are not required to make use of said rooms.

--Tony

I do hope these rooms will be passworded so not everyone can just walk into other teams' rooms, right? The admins of each team could PM their team members the password to their room.

Between plotting to kill you all and chasing balls of yarn, I also build MOCs